THE SMARTEST GUY in the room just left the Prime Minister’s Office.
Gerald Butts is no longer in the building. And the man-who-might-as-well-have-been-king and former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau has quit leaving the prime minister to act on his own. This is tragic. And it won’t end well.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now fighting a political battle on seven fronts without his closest advisor at his side:
(1) By killing the petroleum industry in The West, an entire region of the country has been alienated and needlessly impoverished.
(2) His declaration that a few thousand SNC-Lavalin jobs in Quebec are in the national interest (implying hundreds of thousands of jobs in the petroleum industry are not) just added gas to the fire of Western Alienation.
(3) Two pipelines the private sector was ready, willing, and able to complete was bungled on this prime minister’s watch. Even with the federal government as owner (think of Trans-Mountain), it’s not certain anything can be built or developed in Canada with legal wrangles and a contentious piece of Liberal legislation in play; if passed, Bill C-69, the so-called Impact Assessment Act, is a bullhorn blast to foreign investment that Canada’s natural resources sector is a no-go zone.
(4) An avowed feminist, Justin Trudeau went off-message by turfing one of his most able cabinet ministers — a woman — who had the courage to tell truth to his power.
(5) After promising to right the historical wrongs of indigenous relations in our country, the prime minister fudged on Truth & Reconciliation recommendations. And to add insult, he sullied the reputation of Jody Wilson-Raybould — an indigenous person — by calling into question the former justice minister’s integrity.
(6) Internationally, Justin Trudeau made a fool of himself and the country by naively dressing the part he imagined he was playing in India. He also misunderstood that ‘social license’ and gender rights are not a thing in China, nor can Canada tell the Chinese leadership how to go about their business. China is not amused by his ill-informed shenanigans.
(7) The prime minister doesn’t understand that business-as-usual in Quebec (corruption, graft, bribery, and so forth) doesn’t translate into a get-out-of-jail-free card for bad corporate behaviour because this-or-that Quebec-based company is in the national interest. There are two solitudes, but the French Fact in Canada doesn’t mean you get to break the law with impunity.
A REAL SHIT SHOW
With the departure of Gerald Butts, it is no longer clear who is running the Government of Canada. It certainly isn’t the prime minister.
We believe Justin Trudeau is telling the truth when he said he did not direct Jody Wilson-Raybould to do anything. It would not have been his place as an actor to do so. We think the director of this shit show coming out of Ottawa is the guy that just exited stage left — Gerald Butts.
As an impresario, Mr. Butts seemingly went out of his way, last week, to annoy Albertans…
…as if he was trying to get himself fired. But when that bizarre tweet didn’t do the trick, he resigned, and left the PMO with a season cliff-hanger to ponder.
The reviews are coming in for the Liberal’s version of Yes, Prime Minister! and they read like the implausible final season of Netflix’s House of Cards.
Justin Trudeau’s performance is no longer a thing to behold. His act — a dog & pony show that offends nobody and everybody at the same time — will soon be box office poison. It’s time he took a cue from his director and walked off the political stage (and unlike his father before him, stay out of the limelight).
Canada doesn’t need to be a wrestling match. We don’t require spectacle. We need leadership not narcissism.
Justin Trudeau is killing the country in the belief he’s a global contender — a champion of the world — to save the planet. And because it’s 2019, he needs to leave the ring with his liberal nonsense before anyone else gets hurt.
We’ll have more to say in a week or so…
While I don’t disagree with your list, I think the form and tone of this blog has changed drastically recently. Perhaps you need to consider changing the title.
Donna and Don,
I agree. The worst consequence though is that baby Trudeau has exposed to the world and the Chinese government that our courts and lawmaking are routinely open to political manipulation. Shame!
Nice post we could add a few more but hey who’s counting.
Well written article. I wish the uninformed would all start to educate themselves.
Geez, this blog seems a little, ehm, polar. Anyway, the current level of vitriol directed at young Justin seems excessive. I didn’t vote for him, but he’s clearly a decent, well-meaning (if somewhat naive) politician who wants what’s best for the country. You may disagree as to what that comprises, but the dialogue doesn’t need the hate and rage that has become fashionable around here.
As for killing the petroleum industry, we Albertans did that to ourselves. The oil business and political leadership in this province allowed the oil price differential to exist for 40 years, culminating in the recent debacle where world prices hit $70 and our price went down. New markets, especially in Asia, should have been tapped into decades ago, when there would’ve been much less resistance to a western pipeline. That’s not Trudeau’s fault, or Rachel Notley’s; at least those two came with a questionable Court of Appeal decision of getting construction underway on Trans-Mountain.
So why don’t we put aside the attacks on Trudeau and focus on the real problem – finding new markets for our oil; and the real enemy – American oil interests who have been sabotaging our efforts to find those markets.
The observations about our Prime Minister’s leadership aren’t just coming from western Canada; case in point:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/21/political-scandal-poses-threat-justin-trudeau-image-of-transparency
And, on the petroleum sector, there are many actions that political leaders of all stripes could take, and choose not to. If the energy sector was seen to be in the national interest of Canada, these actions would have been taken already. There are lots of players to ‘blame’ here, and everyone needs to act to course-correct. But when one of the key players –the federal government–won’t step up and instead relies on advice from unelected insiders, like Gerald Butts who is overtly anti-petroleum, it’s a bit naive to stand by and say we trust the system.
I have to agree with one of the other commentators in that the level of emotion in the attacks on Justin Trudeau are over the top. Your list is a good example, in that two of your seven items have to do with “killing” the oil industry, which is ridiculous. What caused the recent downturn in the petroleum business was first, the collapse of prices a few years ago (beyond any government control), and second, the failure of our provincial government and the industry itself to develop new markets (completely our fault as Albertans). Attempting to make Trudeau the scapegoat for our own incompetence makes us look foolish.
And one of your items talks about the fact that Justin dressed his family up in local garb on a diplomatic tour. Seriously, he should resign because of that? I thought it was awesome, personally. Where I agree with your list is with respect to the SNC Lavalin affair, and Quebec politics in general, but it should be remembered that we have a long way to go before finding out all the facts, and so it’s premature to talk about resignation.
Finally, I discovered your blog because I’m indeed very worried about polarization of political discussion, and your intro page seems very promising in that respect. But your most recent posts (I haven’t looked at your earlier ones yet) are highly “polar”, if you know what I mean. Is one of your team representing, say, the somewhat left-leaning current government? Don Hill, maybe? They’re letting the side down, in any case. Let me know if I can help with that!
Here is an excerpt from Gerald Butts resignation letter:
“I also need to say this (and I know it’s a non sequitur). Our kids and grandkids will judge us on one issue above all others. That issue is climate change. I hope the response to it becomes the collective, non-partisan, urgent effort that science clearly says is required. I hope that happens soon.”
That our Prime Minister’s principal advisor is so absorbed in a campaign against the petroleum sector is, in our opinion, very relevant. We’ve written about Butts background and motivation in the blogs; please, have a look.
As for questions about Trudeau’s attire in places like India, what’s really critical is the response of people there. They weren’t impressed. Ditto in China. They aren’t taking Canadian leaders seriously. This is a time for relationship-building in a world where realpolitik is changing. Canada can’t afford the luxury of frivolous.
Finally, our blogs are consensus opinions. It’s not as if we’re advocating for leaders from other partisan places; we’re looking at our elected (and unelected) decision-makers and reporting on what we hear from Albertans. You aren’t necessarily going to like what we have to say, but we’re reporting. And there are times when we don’t like what any leaders or wanna be leaders have to say. Albertans & Canadians have to do better if we’re going to thrive in a brave new world. And we need to hold our leaders to account; there are structural and political barriers that only politicians can remove.
Jody Wilson Rabould was not an “able” cabinet minister, she was a far left wing nutcase who made a mess out of everything she touched. That she is out as AG is the one good thing about this mess!!
whenever political power becomes a family story – something is wrong
but populations keep making the same mistakes … and elect the 1% …
history stutters a lot